Civil Rights Cases (1883)

1) Link to the Actual Opinion
Read the U.S. Reports opinion (PDF)

2) Summary of the Opinion
The Supreme Court struck down provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations like inns, theaters, and public transport. The Court held that the 14th Amendment only restricts state action, not discrimination by private individuals or businesses.

3) Why It Mattered
This ruling gutted Reconstruction-era civil rights protections and allowed Jim Crow segregation to flourish unchecked for decades.

4) What It Provided or Took Away

• Took Away: Federal power to ban racial discrimination by private businesses.
• Provided: States near-complete authority to regulate (or ignore) racial segregation and discrimination.

5) Overreach or Proper Role?
It was a narrow and formalistic interpretation that ignored the Amendment’s purpose. Widely seen as judicial failure to enforce civil rights.

6) Plain-English Impact Today
The decision left civil rights largely unprotected until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed under Congress’s Commerce Clause powers, finally outlawed segregation in public accommodations.

• 14th Amendment
• Civil Rights
• Equal Protection
• Reconstruction